Principle #3: Strive to Earn Passive Income

Money buys happiness. Not because of the things it can buy. In fact, it’s likely the more money you have, the more you realize you can’t buy anything material that will provide you with sustained happiness.

Rather, money buys the freedom to pursue your dreams. Money empowers your ability to jump out of bed each morning to choose exactly how you’re going to add value to the world.

One of life’s biggest trap is we’re programmed to only exchange our time and effort for money. We’re set up to believe this is the end goal for our lives and for our careers. This starts at an early age when we’re asked “What are you going to be when you grow up?” This question implies: “How do you want to exchange time and effort for money when you grow up?”

The irony is: we trade so much of our time and effort for money, the only thing we’re taught to do with money is to spend it.

We all have to work to make money at some points in our lives. However, most people think of this as the end point and not a stage in their lives when they should be accumulating assets that create passive income as quickly as possible so they can buy their freedom. That is, freedom to exchange time and effort to pursue their passions.

We can get out of this trap if we learn to build passive income streams when we are young. This can set us free to spend our time and effort to add value by pursuing our passions.

If you can generate enough passive income to forever pay for all the things you need to make you happy, then you are rich. That is, you have complete freedom to choose how you add value each day!